One fun thing about reading Ulysses is that a lot of Leopold Bloom's interior monologue revolves around money in the old system and he does a lot of calculation

One fun thing about reading Ulysses is that a lot of Leopold Bloom's interior monologue revolves around money in the old system and he does a lot of calculations in his head. You start to get a sense of what it was like. The impression I got is that it all revolves around the shilling, which seems to have been worth something like $5 around the time of the book: 1 crown = 5 shillings 1 pound = 20 shillings 1 guinea = 21 shillings 1 shilling = 12 pence Guinea is the weird one, but it has the function of allowing you to give tips. If someone charges you 3 pounds and you pay them 3 guineas then you are giving a 5% tip.